T20 World Cup: All-Round Australia Outclass India To Claim Fifth Title

Australia outclassed India by 85 runs to defend their T20 World Cup in the final at the jam-packed Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) on Sunday. Opting to bat, the opening pair of Alyssa Healy (75) and Beth Mooney (78 not out) powered Australia to 184/4 in the stipulated 20 overs.

In response, India, who reached the final due to their better record in the group stage, were bundled out for paltry 99 runs. It was also India’s first loss in the 2020 T20 World Cup. For Australia, their new ball bowler Megan Schutt was the pick of the bowlers as she returned figures of 4/18. Jess Jonassen also well complimented her with a three-wicket haul.

Australia were off to a blistering start

Healy and Mooney dominated the Indian bowling line-up from the word go. The first over from Deepti Sharma went for 14 runs as Australia made their intentions quite clear.

Healy’s 39-ball knock was laced with seven boundaries and five hit over the fence while Mooney smashed 10 boundaries in her unbeaten knock.

At a stage, Australia looked well set to post a total beyond 200, but after the dismissal of the openers the run scoring rate slowed for the home team with Meg Lanning (16) and Ashleigh Gardner (2) failing to do much with the bat.

For India, Deepti Sharma picked up two wickets but gave away 38 runs in four overs.

Disappointing chase from India

India lacked composure at the big stage. 16-year-old Shafali Verma was sent packing in the third ball of the match with Smriti Mandhana, Jemmimah Rodrigues and Harmanpreet Kaur following the suit.

Deepti Sharma (33) showed some resilience for India but till then the match had already slipped out of India’s grip.

Veda Krishnamurthy (19) and Richa Ghosh (18) played cameo knocks towards the end but there was no real intent shown by them.